Alzheimer's has become the sixth-leading cause of death in the U.S. (the fifth-leading cause of death if you taking under consideration only people over 65). For now Alzheimer's cannot be prevented or slowed down in progress. One of the latest reports shows that Americans are scared of Alzheimer’s only a little bit less than of a cancer.

Unfortunately for now the only definitive way to diagnose Alzheimer’s is through a brain autopsy post-mortem. Australian scientists from CSIRO focused on finding the method of early-stage Alzheimer's detection – even before memory loss and thinking process disorder are noticeable.

Team of researchers led by Dr. Samantha Burnham has developed a simple blood test for Alzheimer disease. The test monitors the level of nine proteins that appear to be correlated with amyloid level in the brain.

This nine-marker blood test has reached 83% accuracy in positive detection of disease and 85% accuracy in its exclusion. The test has great chance to improve current Alzheimer's diagnosis. It could help to easily detect the disease and start an early treatment in order to prolong the patient's contact with reality.

This test is a great solution mostly because of its low price and non-invasive nature. From our point of view we hope that this test will not be overlooked as many other tests developed during past years. We believe that this idea will make it into clinical use and help millions of people.

You can also watch a film from Alzheimer's Association International Conference 2011 where Samantha Burnham talks about her team's achievement.